Digital Product Manager

The primary objectives of the Royal Society’s publishing operation are to disseminate high-quality science, to make a positive contribution to the reputation of the Society and to generate a surplus to be used by the Society for the good of science.

This post will develop and manage our user-centric, online products and services, associated primarily with our STM Journals, as well as our publishing platform.

A key part of this role will be to develop strategic alliances with third parties and empower colleagues and other contributors to the benefit of our online presence.

This role will ensure that our editorial, product development and marketing activities make the most of the website and other digital opportunities.

The key attributes will be leadership, project/budget/supplier management and communication skills alongside solid digital publishing knowledge within our industry.

This post is dedicated to enriching our electronic content and functionality to add value for our scientific community and to perform optimisation and maintenance on existing third-party integrations.

It optimises the indexing and linking to our published content via A&I services so that we maximise awareness, the level of traffic, usage and article downloads.

As publishing becomes more collaborative there is an increasing need to manage multiple relationships and to assess potential new digital partners.

This post develops and manages these relationships, including liaising with other publisher counterparts.

Its aim is to develop a state-of-the-art web-based publishing service to increase the user base and to promote an online, cross-disciplinary community.

It recommends relevant content and data formatting, processing and development to the Editorial, Production, Marketing and Sales teams to facilitate, improve and advance downstream-of-publication services and products.

It continuously recommends and implements revisions in processes and procedures across the team in collaboration with the Workflow Operations Manager.

It is responsible for the successful development of an adaptable content model to allow for future, required semantic enrichment.

This position will coordinate third-party vendors and internal staff to develop and maintain user interface and digital products.

Overall, it has responsibility for the functionality and effectiveness of the publishing platform, ensuring consistent performance across the sites.

• Reports to: Head of Sales and Marketing
• Line manages: None
• Pay Band: Band E

The application closing date is 18 September 2026 at midnight.

Interviews will take place week commencing 12 October 2026.

Key responsibilities

• Owns and leads the digital product roadmap in support of the publishing strategy.
• Recommends, develops, and implements the annual plans and roadmaps for digital content.
• Successfully plans and delivers cross-departmental (production/editorial/marketing/sales) projects to brief, schedule & budget, and in support of our business strategy.
• Manages our STM journals-based web hosting platform, maintaining cookies, accessibility, content quality and relevance and improving author and user service.
• Fosters, maintains, and builds relationships within the Society and with external contractors, vendors, and clients to enrich our online service.
• Oversees and manages relevant vendor procurement and agreements.
• Represents the Publishing team to hosting provider and other third parties on common issues such as web page management, style sheets & other web tools.
• Increases overall usage and article downloads by optimizing linking and third-party relationships to well-defined content streams.
• Actively monitors GA4 and platform usage trends to identify and investigate significant anomalies before they impact customer usage.
• Keeps abreast of new industry trends, technology, and processes to better inform our business and digital strategies, including developments in AI-based content use and dissemination.
• Works with the sales and access team to troubleshoot and optimise institutional access to content.
• Recommends revisions to processes and procedures that impact on our digital strategy in collaboration with the Workflow Operations Manager.
• Contributes to departmental planning, forecasting and budgeting. Has delegated budget responsibility.
• Analyses existing processes and data to identify new areas for development through continuous improvement.
• Key tasks
• Defines user needs, product requirements, priorities and acceptance criteria for projects and enhancements.
• Defines, develops, drives, and delivers digital product development working with cross-functional stakeholders to manage the product development from concept to launch.
• Manages our relationship and is main contact with our online service providers including our hosting platform.
• Coordinates development work on our website and necessary improvements.
• Supports Editorial on development of the submission system to understand the impact on other systems.
• Reviews the performance and cost-effectiveness of vendors and other third parties.
• Develops and applies relevant quality control/assurance processes and defines written standards, including appropriate Service Level Agreements, with relevant vendors.
• Empowers and, where necessary, trains staff to get the most from our digital environment.
• Briefs relevant Editorial, Marketing, Sales and Production staff on initiatives that impact them.
• Briefs, commissions, oversees and liaises closely with IT Department (and external software developers) to plan & review the necessary IT infrastructure to support our sectional business and strategy needs.
• Coordinates post-production work on our digital content including the digital journal archive.
• Regularly reviews and recommends revisions to processes and procedures.
• Ensures secure storage and preservation of publishing related content.
• Ensures all data belonging to the journal platform are kept in good condition and are safe and retrievable.
• Submits timely and informative management reports on progress, results, benefits & trends.
• Performs additional duties as assigned by Senior Management.
• Performance indicators
• Growth of the journal platform usage.
• Growth of the website user base (overall visits, unique visitors).
• Growth of user communities around our website (overall registrants).
• Contribution to visibility and reputation of online journals.
• Standards of service by our online hosting partner.
• Demonstrates understanding of latest web standards (web accessibility, JATs XML)
• Timeliness and quality of reporting.
• Direct costs versus budget.
• Secure capture & storage of content and data in structured, reusable electronic form.
• Contribution towards new projects and new methodologies, and towards developing best practice and furthering the reputation of the journals.
• Efficiency of processes.
• Quality of decision and speed of response when dealing with colleagues & suppliers.
• Quality and adoption time of new projects and new methodologies.
• Key knowledge and skills required
• Knowledge of STM journals publishing processes.

Highly computer-literate with knowledge of XML, CSS, HTML, website management and digital publishing, its formats and methods, and issues related to digital images.

A superb eye for detail.

• Experience of specifying and managing web-based development projects from scratch, which utilize current online technologies.

Preferably with knowledge of the latest technical standards within the industry and the potential to exploit the rich functionality of the web including support for full-text and metadata searching, browsing, social media, personalization and support for multiple business models.

Experience of Silverchair platform is preferrable.

• Proficient in project management techniques and systems.

Oversees pressure to tight deadlines and prioritises tasks.

Demonstrates excellent interpersonal and time management skills to gain trust and commitment from internal and external partners.

• Self-motivated and able to work independently as well as part of a team.

Excellent organisation, communication and presentation skills, as you will work across departments and with various stakeholders.

Thinks creatively, solves problems, manages change.

Able to develop and manage business relationships.

The post-holder must demonstrate that they are able to

• Take a leading role in shaping digital products and systems.
• Manage diverse internal and external relationships.
• Communicate well with non-technical users and developers alike.
• Capture product requirements and create technical briefs.
• Create, implement and communicate a product roadmap.
• Plan, manage, track, budget and schedule complex technical projects undertaken for the most part externally. Coordinate several projects at one time.
• Brief and work with external vendors so that work is completed on time and within budget.
• Plan and allocate resources to meet workloads.
• Proactively, recommends new initiatives, services and vendors.
• Manage change initiatives with focus on customer, quality, cost and delivery.
• Represent Royal Society Publishing at external meetings.
• Competencies
• Self-management
• Identifies difficult situations
• Recognises stress in others and takes steps to reduce it
• Controls pressurised situations
• Effectively enthuses those in the team
• Proactively sets goals and targets for own work
• Working with others
• Actively seeks ideas and criticisms from within the team
• Resolves conflicts within and between teams
• Embeds feedback processes within the team
• Seeks out new networks that will create opportunity for the Society
• Able to present complex issues simply
• Uses discretion, tact and empathy when negotiating with and/or seeking to influence others
• Understands the need to manage expectations and to only promise what is deliverable
• Resource management
• Determines strategy and deployment of resources, balancing cost and benefit risk and potential for maximum impact across significant business areas
• Manages complex cross-cutting projects to time, budget and specification
• Ensures others accept responsibility towards results or quality
• Sets the quality standards for own business areas in accordance with strategy and contributes to the formulation of quality standards across the Society
• Sets and monitors priorities
• Identifies and manages risk effectively
• Critical thinking
• Uses questioning, analytical and probing skills to ‘dig deeper’
• Knows when enough information has been obtained and adapts presentation of information to the needs of the audience
• Evaluates the benefits, practicalities and value for money of ideas and obtains feedback
• Makes sound decisions in a complex or ambiguous environment and can gain support and manage challenges confidently
• Adaptability
• Actively seeks the input and opinions of others, often outside his/her section and accommodates and incorporates this thinking into any output.
• Actively seeks new challenges and projects; leads discussions surrounding new ideas, approaches and projects
• Anticipates need for innovation and seeks new ideas, approaches and solutions
• Managing people and relationships
• Sets expectations of others and ensures they deliver
• Demonstrates a positive attitude towards work, celebrating success and instilling confidence, which encourages the same from others
• Encourages others to share ideas and participate in the discussion and decisions of the team
• Assesses needs of clients/stakeholders/staff and makes plans to meet these needs.